From Ted Olsen, of Christianity Today Weblog:

I was looking at this New York Times photo:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/27/world/27lebanon_600x370.jpg

My first, cynical, thought was that it was posed. That’s because it’s so iconic. So iconic, in fact, that my second thought was, "Dude, it’s the Lebanon Pieta."

Then I Google Image searched pieta (http://images.google.com/images?q=pieta ) and noticed that almost every single Pieta image has Jesus laying left to right. Very, very few have Jesus laying right to left.

So I guess my question for an art historian is: Am I right? If so, is there a reason for this? Most importantly: Is there a theological message in it? Or is it just because (as one art historian I asked this question of suggested this morning) we tend to be right-handed?

Ted Olsen
News Director / Online Managing Editor
Christianity Today
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ctmag/